Lessons Learned
by Sardixiis
Summary: Bad decisions have consequences. Those consequences ripple outward from the decision maker, impacting others along the way. One bad choice could create a media scandal... and that wasn't even the worst possible outcome. A fic exchange story.
1. Chapter 1

**Lessons Learned**

 _A fic exchange story for the prompt "a scandal hits the McCord family." I didn't want to do one of the more traditional scandals, so I went with this. Hopefully it still qualifies. It's a three chapter story since I am completely unable to write one shots._

Chapter One

Daisy was frantic. There were media surprises and bad media surprises, and then there was this. It was going to cause waves across the entire country, with the Secretary of State at the epicenter. The Secretary needed to be informed, immediately, and for more than one reason.

She left her office at a run, shouldering everyone out of the way that wasn't smart enough to move on their own. Blake saw her coming, but even he wasn't going to stop her. Daisy didn't care what the Secretary was doing at the moment. This took priority. As she skirted around Blake he stood up and reached toward her.

"Daisy, the Secretary's in a meeting! You can't interrupt!"

It was clear Daisy wasn't stopping, so Blake went after her. He was hoping he would be able to place himself in front of the doors and physically bar them, but he wasn't fast enough. Daisy didn't even bother to knock. She just yanked the doors open. Blake was forced to step in with her so he would at least look a little less incompetent.

Elizabeth was out of her seat before either one of them was more than two steps into the room. Her face was alight with fury as she stared them down, which made Blake want to cringe. China's Foreign Minister, who had been in the middle of a meeting with the Secretary, merely swiveled around in his chair to look at them placidly. There was no doubt that his stoic expression was masking a fury nearly equal to Elizabeth's.

"The entire world better be collapsing because that's the only reason I can think of for the two of you to have a right to come barreling into my office without knocking while I'm in a meeting with a foreign dignitary!"

"I believe I still would have knocked," Chen added dryly.

"I stand corrected," Elizabeth admitted with a slight nod to Chen before turning a blazing glare back on Blake and Daisy. "You better have a good explanation."

"Ma'am, I'm sorry for the…" Blake began, but Daisy cut him off.

"Ma'am, you're needed immediately. It's your son."

That brought Elizabeth to a halt.

"Jason?"

Her eyes swept over Daisy's face, trying to determine how bad it was. In her heart, however, she already knew the answer. Daisy wouldn't have come barging into her office if the situation hadn't been dire. The mere thought was terrifying. Being on break from school, Jason had more time to potentially get himself into trouble, but she trusted her son. He generally made good choices. What could he have possibly done to merit this level of attention from her Press Coordinator?

"Yes," Daisy confirmed, though it was completely unnecessary. She strode over to the desk and handed Elizabeth her tablet before continuing. "This just came up on the news. Jason was taken to MedStar Georgetown."

Elizabeth collapsed back into her chair. Jason had been taken to the hospital.

"Wha-?" Elizabeth began, and then cut herself off.

What had happened would be explained in the news clip Daisy had pulled up on the tablet. Hands shaking, she hit play.

 _"Local police have just raided an underage party in Georgetown. Dozens of teenagers were found at various levels of intoxication. Some of them were in serious enough condition that they were sent to the hospital by ambulance. One of these teenagers is the Secretary of State's son, Jason McCord."_

The image on screen changed from the reporter to older footage of an ambulance. Two EMS personnel were wheeling a gurney toward it. Jason was strapped down to the gurney, completely passed out and terribly pale.

Elizabeth didn't hear anything else that was said in the news segment. Nothing mattered but getting to her son. She was halfway across her office before her brain caught up with her automatic response to seeing her child in danger.

"Blake, call my motorcade."

"Yes, Ma'am."

As Blake rushed out of the room to make the call, Daisy could only look on in silence. The frantic terror on her boss' face sent a knife through Daisy's heart. She wanted to do something to help, but she didn't know what could be done.

"Elizabeth."

Chen's voice stopped Elizabeth in her tracks. She'd completely forgotten the Chinese Foreign Minister was in her office, but she turned half toward him after he called her name. Hopefully he wouldn't want anything because she wasn't sure she'd be able to appropriately handle any discussion at the moment.

"I hope your son is alright."

He offered her a small nod, telling her without words to go to her boy.

"Thank you, Ming."

That said, she took off running, out of her office and through the hallways. She had to trust that Blake already had a car waiting for her outside. Even taking a moment to check with him felt like too much. She had to get to her son.

O . o . O . o . O

"How bad is it?" Jay asked.

"For Jason or for the Secretary?" Nadine enquired.

Jay floundered for a moment before shrugging.

"Both?"

"I don't know anything about Jason other than the fact that he was ambulanced out of the party," Daisy explained.

Given what she'd seen on the video however, Daisy didn't see how Jason's condition could be good. There hadn't been much sign of life from him.

"And you think this is going to turn into a scandal?" Jay pressed.

"I'm pretty sure it already is one, Jay," Nadine began. "The Secretary of State's son hospitalized after participation at an underage drinking party? And worse yet there's live video coverage? How could that not be a scandal? Even if Daisy starts damage control now this will still be a mess."

"I don't know how much damage control is even going to do," Daisy admitted.

They all looked at each other, nervous and worried. This was going to be ugly even if Jason's condition turned out not to be serious. More importantly, Jason's involvement in an underage party wouldn't just effect the Secretary's reputation. It could ripple outward and effect the people's opinion of the entire presidency and therefore Dalton's reputation. Public opinion was far spreading, and the people's judgements could be toxic. It wouldn't matter that the Secretary hadn't been the one to make a bad decision. Neither had the President. It could still be put on them. If that really did happen, ugly might not be a strong enough word for the mess they'd be facing.

"I guess we just have to hope the kid's okay because the only one that might be able to find a way out of this is the Secretary, and she's definitely not going to be in a frame of mind to do that if something's really wrong with her son," Matt said.

It was the most they could do. That and to try and keep the media mess from getting too much worse.

O . o . O . o . O

Elizabeth had never been to the War College. She'd never had reason to be there, and she really wished she didn't have a reason now. But she did, and she wanted to run down the hallways until she found her husband. Even though their child was in the hospital and possibly fighting for his life, Elizabeth couldn't let her emotions show. After locking her expression into a professional mask, she headed for her husband's classroom at the fastest pace that wouldn't draw attention. Of course the fact that she was there at all would draw attention, but nobody would know anything was wrong.

When she reached Henry's classroom she didn't bother knocking. She simply opened the door and stepped inside, knowing full well she would disturb the class. That would be inevitable anyway. Henry noticed her and stopped speaking mid-sentence.

"Elizabeth?"

His class swiveled around to look at her. They wouldn't be able to read her expression, but Henry would. He knew her too well. Her panic was incredibly well concealed, but her eyes gave her away.

"You need to come with me right now."

"I just started my class, Babe."

"Jason's in trouble, Henry."

Henry had been hoping he could take a few minutes to temporarily calm Elizabeth down until he finished class. The minute he heard that Jason was the cause of her panic all thoughts of continuing class were over.

"Class is dismissed. Consider this a day off," he told his students as he gathered up his coat and went to his wife.

Elizabeth didn't even look at him the whole way out to her motorcade. That made Henry even more nervous. If she wasn't looking at him it meant she was barely holding herself together and needed to do everything possible to maintain that grip until they got somewhere private. The car was that place. Once the door was closed behind them Elizabeth clutched at Henry's arm. She was openly shaking.

"Jason's in the hospital."

Henry's eyes went wide and he reached out for her hand.

"What happened?"

"Alcohol poisoning. At least I think."

As bad as alcohol poisoning was, she had to hope that that was all it was. Alcohol wasn't the only thing that was commonly at teenage parties. Drugs could be too.

"Alcohol? From where? We don't keep that much in the house. Not that's really accessible."

Henry seriously couldn't believe it. They'd talked to Jason about drinking. More than once. He'd been receptive, in his own way. Henry had always thought that if one of his children had gotten involved with something dangerous he would know. Apparently he'd been wrong because he hadn't even suspected that Jason was drinking.

"He was at a party," Elizabeth explained. "Did you know he was going to a party today?"

"No. And who throws a party in the middle of the day?"

"Kids with parents who work. The timing makes a lot of sense that way. They'd have the house to themselves."

Henry's jaw clenched and he tightened his grip on Elizabeth's hand.

"I'm going to kill him."

Elizabeth knew it was all talk. Just a knee jerk reaction. When it came time to face Jason, Henry would have a cool head. If anyone was likely to go off at Jason it would be her. She wanted to be angry at him. She really did. If she was finally able to feel angry at her son it would mean his life wasn't in danger anymore. Anger would be a good thing.

She lifted her head up to meet Henry's eyes.

"You may not get the chance."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Elizabeth pressed herself against Henry and without really thinking about it, twisted her hands into the back of his jacket. She buried her face against his shoulder to try and prevent herself from crying. They were still in a main corridor of the hospital even if it wasn't the most used one. Henry's arms tightened around her. It was too tight, really, but it provided a kind of anchor to her. She was grateful for that even if it wasn't entirely comfortable.

"It's going to be alright," Henry whispered.

"You don't know that," she returned just as softly.

He didn't know that, but he had to believe it anyway. Considering any other possibility would be too much. Henry couldn't let his mind go there, and he certainly didn't want Elizabeth thinking that way. It would do them no good and would be entirely too painful.

Jason was in trouble. On the trip to the hospital his respiratory rate had dropped enough that the paramedics had put him on an oxygen mask. It had only gotten worse at the hospital, and he'd been intubated. With a BAC of nearly .38, coma and brain damage were real possibilities. The one thing they had going for them was the fact that the doctors were relatively confident Jason wouldn't die.

Henry stiffened, alerting Elizabeth to a change in who was nearby. She forced herself to take a steadying breath and turn around. Jason's door was standing open while two nurses walked away. The doctor remained standing in front of it. Seeing him almost made Elizabeth turn around and press her face back against Henry's chest. She was scared to face the reality of their situation. Henry slipped his arms around her and pulled her back against him anyway. There would be no turning around now, but at least she still had him as support.

"You can go in now."

"Is he awake?" Henry asked even though he knew it was likely too much to hope for.

"No. He's in the same state as before, Mr. McCord. I'm sorry."

Henry nodded. He really hadn't been expecting anything to change in the short time it had taken them to move Jason to a room Elizabeth's security was happy with. Still, he'd wanted to ask.

"When do you think he could regain consciousness?" Elizabeth questioned.

"I'm afraid there's no way to tell, Ma'am. It could be hours, days, or even longer."

"Longer…"

"It's possible. We won't know much more until he regains consciousness and we run some tests."

"Thank you, Doctor, for everything you've done," Henry murmured.

The doctor nodded and left the two of them alone. Once he was gone Elizabeth turned to Henry and opened her mouth to speak. Henry cut her off before she even started.

"He's done everything he can, Babe. You can't blame him for seeing to his other patients. Let's go see Jason."

Elizabeth forced herself not to argue and held tight to Henry's hand as they stepped into the room. The sight that greeted her was too much. If Henry hadn't automatically recognized that and grabbed her elbow she would have ended up on the ground.

"Oh, Jason. What have you done?"

The color of Jason's skin would have been scary without all of the tubes and wires. Those were even worse than what she'd seen attached to Henry after the dirty bomb. Her husband had nearly died then, which didn't give all that much hope for her son.

Henry had to guide her forward and settle her into a chair beside the bed. She gathered Jason's hand into hers and kissed his knuckles.

"I need you to come back to me, baby."

There was no response from Jason, and Elizabeth choked back a sob. Henry squeezed her shoulders and kissed the top of her head.

"Give it some time, Babe. He's going to wake up."

Elizabeth nodded and tried not to think of any other possible outcome. Jason was her youngest. She couldn't even imagine losing her beautiful baby boy even though the possibility was staring her right in the face. How could this have happened? That train of thought didn't really lead to anywhere good either, but it was better than considering life without Jason. Since she couldn't come up with anything better to occupy her mind and there was no way to stop thinking altogether, she let herself consider the answer to that question. The inevitable answer that came to mind wasn't one that made her feel very good.

"Henry?"

"Yeah, Babe?"

"Did my job drive him to this?"

Henry looked up at her in surprise. He understood why she would consider that, but he also knew there was no way it was true.

"No, Babe. He didn't drink as a way to cope with being the Secretary of State's son. He drank because he was at a party with a bunch of friends. You didn't cause this, but you're going to be there to help him fix it."

His answer took some of the edge off of her guilt. Her career might not have directly caused this, but she still partly blamed herself. She hadn't noticed. She hadn't stopped it before it had happened. The truth was she likely couldn't have, but that reality wasn't something she wanted to accept. She was Jason's mother, and she should have protected him.

A few hours later there was still no change from Jason. Both Elizabeth and Henry had sat in near silence as they waited and hoped. It hadn't been a good few hours, and the next ones weren't likely to get better. Neither of them noticed anything except the stillness of their son and the anxiety that wouldn't go away.

"Ma'am?" When the question brought no response there was a knock at the door followed by another attempt to draw attention. "Madam Secretary?"

Elizabeth and Henry both looked up the second time.

"Blake…" Elizabeth murmured.

"I apologize, Ma'am. I know this isn't a good time, but you weren't answering your phone."

Blake was hardly ever nervous in front of her, but given his handwringing in that moment he definitely was this time.

"Cell phones aren't allowed in here."

That reply made Blake squirm even more.

"I understand, Ma'am, but the President wants to speak to you."

Elizabeth released a long, drawn out breath. She knew what that meant and she didn't like the thought. There would be no avoiding the President, even for Jason. Even knowing that, her eyes flicked back to her son.

"Go on, Elizabeth. I'll let you know if anything changes," Henry promised.

She had no other option but to do what Henry said, and she did trust him to let her know if something changed with Jason. After running her fingers through Jason's hair Elizabeth turned away to follow Blake outside.

"Before you call the President, Ma'am, you should know that the media isn't letting this go. They've been on a tear since the moment it aired live. Daisy hasn't even been able to slow it down. I'm sorry."

"It's alright, Blake," she said in resignation as she held out a hand for the phone.

Elizabeth couldn't have expected the media to react any differently. They were always quick to jump on a scandal. She was far more concerned about Jason than she was about the media, but she suspected that might be forced to change. For a moment all she could do was stare at the phone and try to convince herself to dial.

"Ma'am?"

She glanced up at Blake and then sighed.

"I know. I know. I'm calling."

And she did.

It took a long time for the call to go through, which only made Elizabeth tenser. She wanted to be back in the room with Jason, and all the waiting only made that desire stronger.

 _"Bess."_

Elizabeth tore her eyes off the window and focused on the call.

"Mr. President."

 _"I'm very sorry about Jason, Bess. How is he?"_

"Still unconscious. The doctors won't know how much damage was done until he wakes up."

She left out the fact that there was a chance they wouldn't even get that far.

 _"I hope it all turns out alright, and I wish I could give you the time to deal with Jason's situation and nothing else. But I can't."_

Conrad sounded as resigned about that fact as Elizabeth felt. Unfortunately that resignation wouldn't change what needed to happen.

"I understand, Mr. President," she replied even though she wished that she could argue for that time.

 _"The media has been all over this since the beginning, and they have some harsh criticism of you. To not pull my punches, they're tearing you apart. However they view you reflects directly on this presidency, so I need you to address this and get back in their good graces so Jason's actions don't completely taint your reputation. I don't care how you do it. Even if you have to throw Jason under the bus, I need you clean."_

Elizabeth grit her teeth. There was no way she was going to sacrifice her son just to save herself and Conrad's presidency. Jason had suffered enough. Conrad knew that though. She knew that he did. It was why he'd told her that he didn't care how she did it. There would be another way, and she would find it.

"I will get right on it, Sir."

 _"I know you will. Tomorrow. That's why I had Russell tell your speech writer to get to work."_

That would be another phone call she would have to make, but there was nothing to be done about it. She would have to take a little more time away from Jason before going back to him. Then, once she did, she was going to have to force her brain into gear so she could find a way out of this mess.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

They spent the night at the hospital even though visiting hours wouldn't officially allow it. Henry managed to fall asleep, but Elizabeth had eventually accepted that sleep wouldn't happen for her. After drifting as close to sleep as she was likely to get for a few hours, Elizabeth gave up. It would be a far better use of her time to work on her speech. Typically Matt was the one to write all of her speeches, but this one was personal. She wanted to do it herself. She would get a little bit written and then get distracted watching Jason. The doctors had taken the tube out earlier in the evening. Some of Elizabeth's fear had been removed with the tube. Now she could look at her son and think of him as merely asleep.

Elizabeth wrote a few more lines at the end of her speech and glanced up at Jason. It had become habit to watch him as she thought. At first what she was seeing didn't register. Then she sat bolt upright, nearly dropping her pen and speech out of her lap.

"Henry! Henry!" she called as she reached over and gave her husband's shoulder a shove.

Henry jerked awake and blinked blearily at her. Elizabeth ignored him and was already at Jason's bedside. She was watching him intently.

"Jason?" she asked as she brushed her son's hair back off his face.

When Henry realized what was going on, he scrambled out of his chair to join Elizabeth and Jason. Then he saw Jason's eyes opened and his heart leapt.

"Jas?"

Jason groaned and rolled a bit toward them.

"Mom? Dad? What happened?"

His voice was scratchy and weak from being so dry, but he was speaking. Henry and Elizabeth couldn't help grinning like crazy. The relief of seeing him awake was so great Elizabeth was fighting not to cry and losing that battle. A few tears slid down her face, and she had to brush them away.

"Mom?"

Jason was confused and concerned. He never saw his mother cry. When she didn't answer Jason's eyes flicked to his dad. Henry smiled at him reassuringly.

"We're so glad you're awake, Jason."

"Do you remember what happened, baby?"

It was a harder question than Jason thought it should have been. He had to close his eyes and dig through his scattered memories to come up with an answer. Unfortunately the answer, once he remembered, wasn't one he was going to be able to tell his parents. They hadn't known about the party before, and he definitely didn't want to tell them now. If they knew where he'd been and what he'd been doing they would kill him. When he opened his eyes and looked up at his parents again he didn't know what to say.

Elizabeth could read his eyes. There was memory there. And fear.

"We already know, Jason. There's no point in hiding anything."

Jason's face twisted painfully.

"I was at a party."

"Drinking," Henry added.

Jason closed his eyes and nodded reluctantly.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

Elizabeth rested her hand on Jason's cheek, drawing his full attention. There were tears trickling down her face again. Now wasn't the time to fully confront him about his decision, but Jason had to understand how serious the situation was. If he hadn't already figured that out for himself.

"You have no idea how sorry you could have been, Jason. You nearly died."

Jason paled and looked at his father with wide eyes.

"She's not exaggerating, buddy," Henry confirmed.

Tears filled Jason's eyes, and he began trembling. The realization of the potential consequences of going to that party were finally sinking in, and it terrified him. He hadn't meant to almost get himself killed. He hadn't even meant for anything bad to happen. The plan had been to go to the party, have some fun, and come back home without his parents even knowing. Obviously that plan had been blown to absolute smithereens. He hadn't achieved any part of it except for going to the party and having fun, except it didn't feel like so much fun now. It felt like the absolute opposite of fun really.

"I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. I didn't mean…"

Elizabeth reached out and pulled Jason into her arms. He clung to her like a lifeline. Henry settled himself onto the bed next to them and began stroking Jason's head and back. Jason was going to continue learning from this experience, and Elizabeth and Henry would be there to help him through the process.

O . o . O . o . O

There was a soft knock on the hospital door that drew the three McCords' attention. Blake was standing at the door with a fresh change of clothes for Elizabeth in his hand. He smiled warmly at them.

"It's good to see you awake, Jason," Blake offered before turning his attention to Elizabeth. "Everything is set up, Ma'am."

Jason's eyes immediately snapped to his mom. He had no idea what Blake was talking about, but it looked like his mom was planning on leaving.

Elizabeth kissed Jason's head and told him, "I'll be back in a little bit."

While Elizabeth followed Blake out of the room, Jason once again turned frantic eyes on his father for an explanation. Henry smiled sadly. Another lesson was coming for Jason. He was now going to learn how far-reaching consequences could be.

"Mom has to do a press conference. The news got your exit from the party on live TV. They've been playing it as a scandal about Mom. She has to try and turn that around."

"Because of me," Jason sighed.

"You didn't make the best decisions, bud."

"And now Mom's going to lose her job."

"Your mom's solved worse problems. I would trust her ability to solve this one too."

Outside the hospital, Elizabeth was hoping the same thing. There was a whole group of media waiting for her. They would be ready to pound her with questions and criticisms, but she was going to try and head them off. Not only that, she wanted to try and bring something good out of this terrible situation. With a deep breath and a last glance at her speech notes, she stepped up to speak.

"You all know me as Secretary McCord, but more importantly I'm the mother of a fifteen year old son. A fifteen year old son who made the bad decision to drink at an underage party and wound up in the hospital for treatment of alcohol poisoning. He regained consciousness for the first time this morning, and the doctors believe there wasn't any lasting damage. But there could have been. And my son wasn't the only one. There were dozens of kids at that party, and that party was one of many.

Teenage drinking is a serious problem, and it's going to take everyone to fix it. Hopefully Jason's story will be a start, so more people than just my family can learn from his poor choice.

Parents, learn from my experience so you don't have to go through the fear and anxiety of wondering if your child will live to see the next day. One discussion about alcohol isn't enough. In my experience, two wasn't enough. As terrible as those discussions might be, they aren't nearly as bad as seeing your child with a tube down their throat.

Teens, every drink has an impact. Jason thought he would know when to stop, but when he started feeling something it was already far too late. The effects aren't instant, and they build up. If he hadn't gotten help when he did he would be dead. It's a terrifying wake up call to regain consciousness in a hospital bed with no memory of how you go there, and to then have to undergo testing for brain damage. Learn from Jason. You don't want to wake up on a ventilator, or worse never wake up at all. One drink can lead to another and another. Don't put yourself in that situation because sometimes there's not a way back out. For those who are lucky enough to have one, it's not an easy way back.

Everyone makes mistakes in their lives, even when they aren't teenagers. I can't condemn the mistakes of a young man who is not yet an adult when I've made mistakes when I was a lot older than he is now. But I know that he will learn from this mistake, and isn't that the whole point of life? You learn from your mistakes so you can make better choices in the future. That's all anyone can ask as a parent, and as a person. We learn from mistakes. Let's let Jason's be a lesson for everyone."

When Elizabeth finished speaking there was a momentary pause as the press considered her words. She'd done her job and more. The blame couldn't truly be placed on her, and in her speech even Jason had escaped any true blame. She'd managed to take the ugliness of the last 24 hours and get some benefit from it. Conrad, at least, should be happy with that. The press would likely never be satisfied, but she might have changed some minds. She would find out how many as the questions began to erupt.

"Madam Secretary," a reporter called out. "Will your son face the juvenile justice system?"

There was little question that he would, Elizabeth knew, which would give the press even more of a field day. She would deal with that when the time came; however, she could potentially keep that round of the news cycle to a minimum with a good answer right now.

"I would certainly assume so. He has a lot of lessons to learn, and I want to use every way I can to get them to sink in. Jason won't be exempt from anything any other teenager would face."

"Do you plan on punishing your son for his actions?" another reporter asked.

"We are definitely going to have a long discussion with him," Elizabeth returned. "As for punishment, I think he has suffered enough, though that doesn't mean there won't be consequences for breaking our trust."

What those consequences would be where still unknown. She would have to talk to Henry. And to Jason. Her son's reaction to all of this would play a big role in how she responded. Lessons needed to be learned, but she suspected Jason was well on his way to learning them without any involvement from her. The whole family would get through and move past the scandal the media wanted to turn the event into. They could even come out better for it.


End file.
